UPS Is Using Drones To Transport Medical Supplies Between Hospitals (cnbc.com) 30
UPS has partnered with autonomous drone company Matternet and hospital WakeMed in Raleigh, North Carolina, to test a new drone delivery service for transporting medical samples to nearby facilities. The FAA is overseeing the program. CNBC reports: UPS said the service will utilize Matternet's M2 "quadcopter" drone, which can carry medical samples of up to 5 pounds as far as 12.5 miles. The program will begin with "numerous planned daily revenue flights at the WakeMed Raleigh campus," UPS said. The drone delivery service aims to replace WakeMed's reliance on a fleet of courier cars, which currently transports most of the hospital's medical samples. Using a UPS "secure drone container," WakeMed employees can load medical specimens like blood samples and send them quickly to a nearby WakeMed facility.
Matternet has completed "more than 3,000 flights for healthcare systems in Switzerland," UPS added. The WakeMed program is also under the FAA's broader effort called the "Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program," which "aims to test practical applications of drones by partnering local governments with private sector companies."
Matternet has completed "more than 3,000 flights for healthcare systems in Switzerland," UPS added. The WakeMed program is also under the FAA's broader effort called the "Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program," which "aims to test practical applications of drones by partnering local governments with private sector companies."
Not bad (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
It's an excuse they've come up with to experiment with drone delivery. People don't especially want noisy buzz things flying around above them regularly.
But since it's for teh medical, it must be good. Nice trick, UPS.
I still want my battlefield drones (Score:3)
You get blown up by a claymore or something but in your backpack is a swarm of little surgeon drones that find all the pieces, sorts them by DNA in case your buddy got blown up too, glues you back together and restarts your heart, all before hypoxia begins to cause brain damage. Then a week or two later you're doing patrols again.
Re: No thanks (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
And when they're carrying blood samples, even more realistic!
Oops! I Dropped A Bag Of Crap! (Score:2)
Look Out Below.......
So, drones armed with weapons and drugs? (Score:2)
To you, it's medical supplies.
Just saying.
Re: (Score:2)
pigeon holed (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I would imagine this thing will fly close to it's allowed ceiling for most of it's trip. So shouldn't be tons of pigeon clouds for it to run into like it could on ground. And quadcopters are loud and angry sounding, birds get the hell away from them for the most part. Probably biggest worry would be territorial hawks or something along the flight path, lol.
is it SAMPLES or SUPPLIES? (Score:2)
The title states "supplies", the article says "samples". If it is actually samples, I have a big issue with people flying "red bag" materials with drones.
Stop Exagerating! (Score:2)
The headline implies that these deliveries are being made in volume and consistently RIGHT NOW. The summary clarified that UPS has PARTNERED with another company and are PLANNING some TEST FLIGHTS.
That is very, very non-commital.
This type of journalism perpetuates tech myths with the massive population that knows enough to recognize shallow tech concepts but with almost no understanding of the actual state of the technology in question.
This kind of journalism is what will convinces people to invest their re
Re: (Score:2)
Tip of the iceberg (Score:1)
Expanding the Drone Cloud (Score:1)
A couple of small thoughts occur. When drone deliveries of lightweight items become routine between multiple points in any metropolitan area, inevitably expanding beyond hospitals and other limited applications, illegal drug dealers will naturally hop on that bandwagon. Why wouldn't they? One more drone zipping along inside a virtual cloud of them won't stand out. Increasing sophistication in autopilot capabilities over wider and wider areas will allow illicit dealers to decrease the risk of their runners o
Fair weather friend? (Score:2)
Curious how much wind/rain/snow/hail a drone could handle.
In calm, warm weather a drone performs just fine. Any gusting of wind and a light weight drone goes tumbling.
It's only a matter of time (Score:2)
Not that I'm against this at all. I'm just a fan of Murphy's Law.